'Red' Kerr remembered at service

Led by the bagpiper, family and friends walk towards the burial site, following the funeral services of Johnny "Red" Kerr. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Family, friends and sports luminaries paid their final respects to Chicago Bulls broadcaster Johnny "Red" Kerr in a service today.

A standing-room-only crowd of about 250 people packed a chapel at Chapel Hill Gardens West in Oakbrook Terrace to pay their respects at the 11 a.m. service.

Kerr, 76, the Bulls' first coach, died at home Feb. 26 after a long battle with prostate cancer. He died the same day that the death of former Bulls player and broadcaster Norm Van Lier was discovered.

Friends recalled Kerr's life with the Bulls as his second family. Fellow broadcaster Neil Funk, who teamed up with Kerr in the broadcast booth for years, recalled how they would spend eight months together, during the season, and "Johnny considered me to be his other wife."

Every June, Funk said, "he would call my wife, Renee, and say that he was turning him over to her."

"The Bulls meant everything to him," said Bill Wennington, a member of several Bulls championship teams in the mid-1990s who now is a radio broadcaster for the team. "We were like family."

Bulls General Manager John Paxson told the crowd the tributes to Kerr today helped lift his spirits. "I have been sad for a week," since Kerr and Van Lier's death, Paxson said. "But hearing these stories today made me feel better."

Following the service, which was presided over by the Rev. John Smythe, mourners paid their final respects to Kerr, whose body lay in an open casket adorned with red roses and flanked by two arrangements of red roses, one that said "Red," another that said "Chicago Bulls."

Among other mourners were longtime NBA Vice President of Communications Brian McIntyre, who also is a former Bulls media relations director; former Bulls player Tom Boerwinkle; Bulls announcer Stacey King, who also is a former Bulls player; broadcaster Chuck Swirsky; broadcasters Tom Dore and Jim Durham; Tim Hallam, current Bulls media relations director; former Bulls broadcaster Lorn Brown; Brooks Boyer, the current White Sox director of marketing, who is formerly of the Bulls; and former Benny the Bull Dan Lemonnier.